SEEING LIFE BEYOND THE VISIBLE

Faith is one of the most outlandish aspects of humanity.  It believes over the top of the highest visible obstacle.  No wonder so many don't care for faith in God.  They assume it to be nothing more than catching good over bad breaks.

Faith is so incredible it can hardly be grasped; let alone implemented.  Yet, it gets done by the humblest of both men and women.  The ability to negotiate momentary presentations of the daily walk is one thing.  To create something which thus far does not exist is quite another.

Therefore I know of nothing more daring, risky, and profoundly exciting than an active faith that believes God can accomplish sheer astonishment when multiple testimonies would warn that such moves can't be done.

(as it is written, “A father of many nations have I made you”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.  Romans 4:17

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  Hebrews 11:1

A CHALLENGE AT THE HEART OF THE CHRISTIAN NATION

Whatever is at the root of religious frustration is simultaneously the solution to epic renewal.  It isn't either/or.  The Kingdom of God is not a list nailed to the church doors. Rather, it is a vibrant process which is eternal.

Eternal.

Get it?  Continual?  Never ending?  Always...but not just always the same; but rather always as in increase or more. The challenge is natural.  We get it.

Due to man's incessant drive for management and security, we function even subconsciously to be in control of events, schedules, opportunities, and developments. We just assume that we rule.

God, on the other hand, is so indescribably imaginative and creative that we can't possibly keep up with His brilliance.  This exasperates any of us who strive to get a grip on...well on life.  It seems He won't stay put which irritates us when we want to call the shots.

A challenge at the heart of the Christian Nation is to identify eternal facts from eternal possibilities.  Whether the Bible is true, Jesus was human, or the Spirit works in one's life are very core stabilizing forces.  What the Bible teaches, however as one example, may be always true; yet that revelation will perpetually call for us to change.  It's very message is for believers to increase in knowledge, in wisdom, in action, in faith.  The Word of God carries expectation that the reader will make progressive adjustment to His defining life in the rich and abundant Kingdom.

The challenge before us is nothing new.  Every generation wishes the older ones would awaken to the pressing potential of the yet-to-be-discovered.  Every...generation. Every generation will eventually be challenged to live by the exploratory spirit and not the bossy flesh.  This isn't a matter of age.  It is a matter of mind-set.  We all know some in their 70s who are more alive than those in their 30s.

Age isn't the rule-of-thumb.  One's faith in the living God is.

The call from the Bible to preserve and protect is not the current standard of church rules which happens to have evolved to this date and time.  Rather it is a persuasion to maintain a relationship with the Trinity in a mode so thrilling, so challenging, that our jaws will drop and our hearts might skip a beat.

The light of the world is growing dim because the church has fallen in line with the-way-we've-done-it-before.  I concur; many of those things remain wonderful because they are in tune with His current activity.  Therefore, do not hear me saying that we are doing nothing well.  I am stating that it is the nature of the flesh to fail to discard methods and mannerisms which have long been used as a stifling force within the community of God.

To stay in step with God is to adhere to His calling to be renewed day by day...II Corinthians 4:16.  We are called to operate on constant alert to the things God unfolds as we grow in Him; mature in Him.  Do not be afraid.  Rather be free.  We are assured that we can know the truth and that truth shall set us free.

Dare we strive to constantly enter?  The challenge at the heart of the Christian Nation is whether we are going to praise God from our love for Him or from our rules about our preferable religious stances.  There can be a difference.

A CHALLENGING POLITICAL SEASON

I've watched both Democrat and Republican debates with intensity.  Each presents a replica of some segment of the American fabric.  Some viewers like some of the candidates while others don't really care for any.  The sobriety of the process allows each of us to evaluate responsibly.  Men and women have died in service to their country so that we could participate in such an honorable format.

For those who watched last night's debate among the four Republican candidates in Detroit, what did you see?  Me?  I saw four men offer a bit of the best of themselves and then, at times, the worst of themselves.  The disrespectful talking over one another was annoying and did not put any in a good light.  Yet, there were moments of insight and depth of display that allowed us to ponder glimmering rays of hope.

The challenge of this political season is an identical challenge to the church's mission. Do we love people who don't behave or believe as we wish?  Or do we write them off like we do politicians who get under our skin?  Where people stand is not to be our first heart-beat.  It is, rather, to be of firm compassion for each is under severe weight of sinnership in need of redemptive works from Heaven.

Yes, we live in a freedom to select our favorite candidate.  We must guard our criticisms for our call, first, is to care....to care about those who stand before us. Anyone can voice approval or disapproval.  Only by God's Spirit can we love even an opponent; can care for one who has vocal perspective against our possible preference.

This year's political scene, to me, is one of the more complex I've seen.  But, that could be just because I don't have a great recollection.  I know that if not careful, even Christians will build a subtle hatred for this one or that one or a few of those.  And right there is where we have skipped an essential beat in the makeup of what it means to be a believer.

We are called to believe in others when they can't/don't believe in themselves.  We are called to love others when they don't act in loving fashion.  We are expected to speak life into the dark arenas.  My questions is, Are we?  And the next one would be, Will we?

May we avoid speaking with disrespect regarding those on stage who speak with disrespect.  Being disrespectful of those I deem disrespectful is a trap which is far too easy for us to enter....I have already discovered....about myself.  May we rise up to care more about people than our positions and stances.

WE DO WHAT WE CAN DO...GOD DOES THE MORE

A strong frustration fills the air.  Which religious bent, or whether one has any faith at all, it is a real challenge for each of us to get through a day without perplexing issues that, at times, tend to eat our lunch.  Therefore, I sit a this computer hoping to enter words that will offer you an authentic glimmer of hope.

In my younger years I was engaged in a major battle.  The turf was days; any day that included me in it.  The problem was that I could not get people to do what I believed they should.  Ever been there?  The result was incredible worry....always....about....them.  Why couldn't they get a grip on what I had a grip on? Furthermore, why was it that I had the grip; yet, they seemed to be the happier?

Go figure.

I was leading my cause to assist the world to become a better place by being actively responsible and assertively productive.  Such was an inner drive and I'm glad.  My intent was to bless others; help them out.  But my plans didn't seem to flow well. Entanglement, conflict, even argument, perpetuated.  While pushing forward, I seemed to be losing ground as so many others couldn't seem to get the picture.

Ultimately, I discovered that the problem wasn't them...first.  It was me...first.  You know...like take the log out of your own eye so that you can see that the log you thought was in theirs was really in your own and theirs was truly, surprisingly, only a speck? Oh how we believe this to be true...for others.  Our self-importing exemption is what's blocking us from the peace and joy and hope that God offers...freely offers for any who wish to drink.

The solution for us could be that we are to do what we can do; plus recognize that God can do more than we estimate of ourselves.  God has effective moves up His sleeve that no one has thought about yet.  I know.  I know that such a suggestion is sheerly elementary.  I know, too, that the church is fundamentally not doing it.  We are subtly, oh so subtly, subject to giving God our best and believing in our own (lacking) skills.

We are giving the kingdom our best shot.  Our best shot, however, has a patch over both eyes.  We have forgotten to lift our eyes to His wonder.  May we believe whole-HEARTedly that at this date in history, mankind has yet to scratch the surface of God's prepared supply from which He is ready to give a hand-out to any who would dare peer into the strength of His mighty warehouse.

“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him,” I Cor. 2:9.

CAN GOD EVER WORK WITH MODELING CLAY!

Jesus came to earth to experience what it would be like to be a human.  The Trinity would depend upon his report.  What would it be like to learn, to win, to lose, to forget, or to find matters of disappointment?  Jesus would find out.

Because he would encounter the entire earth-life range of birth to death, we find him well-equipped to give us hope.  But not only was his routine walk significant.  His blowing the lid off of the grave brought intent of informing all created ones of the most magnificent and outrageous possibility EVER!!

He walked in our shoes on purpose that we might know that He gets us; our victories and our defeats.  But more.  He showed us the way to lift up from the very strongest opponent; death.  He played by its rules (personal activity brought to an abrupt halt on the cross) in order to prove it to be sheer fake as one's death is not the end.

So how are troubles of value?  They each are poised to anticipate the surprises of God; every one of them.  Yes, we are human.  Yes, things go awry.  Yet, even the stressful and the interfering are no match for the imagination of God.

If He can melt death and remold it into life think of the license this give us to be of hope and joy.  His artwork is stunning.  Can He ever work with modeling clay!

What would you imagine He can do for you, with you, through you?  Our troubles are so difficult.  But it is very true, each one is an auditorium stage promoting the outrageous, unimaginable skill-set of the Living God.

POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE....AND THE CHURCH

There is much chatter regarding the current political debates.  I love it.  I'm blessed by the evenings where Hillary vs. Bernie or Ben, Marco, Donald, Ted, and John take the stage and present their cases.  The variables and the variations are striking as well as informative.

One of the notable matters that I see in these assemblies is how parts of it reflect churches.  This would explain a portion of why I have interest in such presentations.

While each party and each group within their party carries on a dialogue, there is a clear, selfish, presentation that often arises which causes a strong dis-ease among many of the expectant voters.  This dis-ease channels quickly and vocally through the mass media.  Concerns have a very broad range and scope.  To listen to several of the voices issuing judgment, they've about had it with the public disharmony being exemplified.

So I wish to convey something in a spirit of compassion as well as respect.  Do we, as ones who promote the church, not get it that if we behave in like manner that the world grows sick of us?  Do we not understand that the masses would love to find a group who cares, who lives, who loves their neighbor more than their pet church stances?  Have we gone blind to ourselves?  Do we not get it that our debates with other brands of churches and then within our own congregations hover as a dark spirit-stifling plague upon this earth?

What's the cure?  It won't be hatred.  Neither will it be spite.  Arrogance won't work (I've tried it).  Raising our voices goes nowhere (I tried that one as well).

From my perspective, of which I realize is only one among the valuable masses with other viewpoints, we simply must awaken to the fact that we are not all alike and that some of our views are not necessarily dispensed from heaven.  We are shamefully in great error when we gather as a congregation to discuss with firm implication that if everyone would be like us, this place would be much better off.

Today will be packed with church attendance.  Some will do so to bring glory and honor to God and to our partners in faith.  Others will participate as if sleep-sitting; going through the ritualistic motions while carrying an invisible checklist of whether both the worship and the Word were done right.  For these, completion means a courteous handshake at the door and off to lunch we go.

As a young man I had no intention of being involved in the church scene for the above reasons.  And truthfully today the blanketing of stale churchainity is robust.  But there's more.  It is upon this very scene of which Jesus was called to break open.  He did....intentionally....effectively....but not without dying.

We have much wonderful work ahead of us.  We (not they) are challenged to take personal inventory.  Are we maturing in the style of Jesus or are we in this simply for the repetitive preferences it brings?  God exhorts all to join His family.  Everyone is welcome.  We will always do a good job of inviting and including if we can keep from assuming that my way is the best (and the only) way to please God.

Yes, Jesus calls us to stances and positions.  I want to be in on the accuracy of them. One of the main ones is that we conclude that our own righteousness is repulsive.  To begin there...today...would be a huge blessing if we maintain our focus.  That log in our own eye has no business trying to deflect the speck in a brother's....Mt. 7:1-5.  Remove first the log...and be of use in the Kingdom.

A WAY THE CHURCH MIGHT BECOME VERY UNSTUCK

I think there is a church practice among us that is so widely accepted that we are unconscious of it.  Furthermore, it is so lethal we are functioning in near coma state. While this trend satisfies self to a large degree, it injuriously betrays the greatest fabric of His calling.

I speak of how deeply we are driven to seek the things we "like" about church.

Just how rigid has this like button infiltrated the Kingdom of God?  We face it at every turn; yet, it hardly gets recognition because we have been faked out to believe our preferences are God's preferences.  That's how we often talk.

A way the church might become very unstuck is to recognize a suffocatingly destructive pattern among us.  It's rather simple really; we like what we like.  You think this isn't true?  Consider our stream of quite normal conversations when looking for a church home.  Everything about it revolves around what we like.

1. Do we like the preaching?
2. Do we like the music?
3. Do our teens like the youth group?
4. Do our children like to go to their classes?
5. Do we like the mission efforts?
6. Do we like the personalities of the staff?
7. Do we like the decisions of the elders?
8. Do we like the location of the church assembly?
9. Do we like when church starts?
10. Do we like when the morning services end?
11. Do we like the ministries offered?
12. Do we like the Bible class themes?

This number of questions can be multiplied.  While these seem legit, there is an underlying factor that rages against the true church intent; yet it so goes unnoticed. These questions are contradictory to the suffering servant on the Cross.

We sing of the Cross.  We give honor to the Cross.  We read, study, and discuss where we are to take up our crosses.  But we are so subtly sabotaged by our demanding like-isms that we have grown numb to our practicing violations of the very nature of self-sacrifice needed to reach a selfish world.

A way the church might maintain its unstuckness is to practice what several have and are; stay with it when you don't get your way.  Throughout the church landscape one will find men and women who have been highly disappointed, even offended, who will not give up.  These realize the wheat and the tares are in the same field.  And what each who endure has realized is that, at times, while they thought they were wheat, they were the tares.

The Kingdom of God is not focused on what we like.  It drives us to be attentive to hardship, strain, loving people who oppose us.  This, my friend, is quite an unstuck direction which will even bear much fruit and bring in an eventual harvest.

The bottom line is that we are not in this for the family comfort.  No.  We are about enduring mistreatment so that others can run into somebody that sees their value buried beneath a facade of anger and abuse.  We must not be a people who use the church as a place to hide from a cruel world; but rather who wade into its hot spots that others might be rescued as once were we by someone else of great courage.

get ready for some TULSA WORKSHOP

from DARKNESS to LIGHT

April 6-9

Tulsa Fairgrounds

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

miTch wilBurn

ChrIs seiDman

roberT Cox

seAn pAlmer

bOB gOFF

JIM whitE

www.tulsaworkhop.org

THINKING OF THE LOAD YOU CARRY

I awakened this morning rehearsing in my mind some painful encounters of a woman we will call Jane.  As I hit replay regarding her drastic moments of suffering and anguish, it occurred to me that Jane's story might help you approach your day with a lighter heart.

You see while sitting in my office one afternoon I received a call from the Highway Patrol asking if I would come to Jane's house so that the patrolman and I could break the news to her of her husband's fatal crash just down the road a piece.  As I sat in the squad car I was handed the victims Bible (which had the church's name in it) battered and blood-soaked.

Soon Jane arrived.  Her face paled as the officer and I approached.  He most carefully explained the scenario and then left.  Jane and I were in shock; especially her of course.  So I stayed until relatives could arrive within the hour.  I helped vacuum, fold clothes, and mainly serve as some sort of anchor for her exploding emotions.

It was just a few years later that this brave woman called early one evening.  In deliberate cadence she explained that she needed me to come to her parents' house about forty-five minutes away.  She was with her mom and the scene...as she described...was too horrendous.

Her dad had become overwhelmed with anger toward a neighbor just across the driveway.  He shot and killed the neighbor man and two of the neighbor's friends....and then turned the gun on himself.  Chris Jones and I rushed to the scene. It was stark; extremely numbing.

Chris and I visited with this young widow and now her widowed mother.  The moment was eerie and stunning.  After a bit Chris and I dared to knock on the neighbor's door. By now a flood of friends were scattered throughout their house and in the yard.  The horror of it all could never be measured.  Words seemed empty.  Hugs felt meaningless.  Death had occurred in its starkest display.

That's an odd story to find roaming my mind when I awakened this morning.  I hadn't thought of this in detail in all these years.  But it made me think about you.  Thus, the reason I even tell this story.

When you are overwhelmed--or will be--know that God has your back.  Brutality and loneliness and disorientation roam our streets and our countryside.  Be attentive to one another because some of our moments are unbearable...and even un-hold-up-able.

Too, I wish to encourage those readers who tend to make a mountain of trouble over very little when, in reality, you don't know deep and rugged discouragement.  The car battery going dead or the washing machine needing repair is not the end of the world.  Don't allow matters of this dimension drive your day.

Everywhere you turn be certain that God has encountered the depths of pain through His Son on the cross that He might better understand the load you carry.  You.  Will.  Make.  It..

HOW TO ENCOURAGE THE WHOLE WOLRD

So how do we encourage the whole world?  It surely and obviously could use a boost. And you know that when I say world that I'm referencing the world of people.

It's a strange thing how much there is to be seen, accomplished, and experienced in this creation of His.  I mean God really did a Masterful job; mountains, oceans, Lowes. Everywhere we turn there is wonder.

However, is it not strange how we have at times transformed wonder into wander?  Is it just a bit weird that we can likely fly past the brilliance of an average day because we become engrossed, even miffed, due to the fact that we ordered eggs sunny-side up and they were delivered moon-side down?

I simply cheer you on.  You need it.  You deserve it.  This is true where we live; cheer is all around.  The way we encourage the whole world is to note the marvel that is everywhere we turn and then speak of it to others.

And by the way.  Yes, I know that the title has a misspelling.  Not everything is ideal. But within that title, did you happen to notice that there were five words which were spelled corectly?

BELIEVING ISN'T ROUTINE

We must be very on guard lest we regard belief factors as mundane.  These ideas aren't usual.  Neither are they reasonable.

Faith peers into the what isn't yet and sees what can become.  It is one of the most remarkable traits of human existence.  It is the connection God to man; our interactive involvement.

While we might be lulled into a routine, even in the realm of the spiritual, we must remain on alert; alert not to danger but to marvel and awe.  Life is a magnificent privilege that, if not careful, we will waste thinking that this experience is abstract or even meaningless.  It is majestic in measurement; profound in depth.

Getting to believe is more than a verification of truth.  It is the activity of seeing things come about.  We get to see past a person's flaws; even their lack.  In turn, we possess an insight into what they can become even if they don't see it themselves.

Believing isn't the routine of whatever happens happens; however it goes, it goes.  Nope.  Faith is moving through human ordinary life with the backing of Powerful God.  We are not set back by disappointment.  We will not quit on others.  Our vision surpasses what the fleshly eyes can see.

I pray that the eyes of your heart might see said the Apostle Paul who at one time fought a deeply troubling eyesight.  We can see through that which stands as an obstacle in front of us.  We are called to see past the challenges by peering into the potential of God's delivering hand.

Believing isn't routine for it carries the empowering wonder of the outlandish style of the living God among His living believers!

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF BELIEVING GOD

Believing God is THE life-changer of all adjusting factors.  Nothing challenges...nothing impacts...like the assurance of faith which carries conviction of things hoped for as well as strong assurance of things unseen.  An immediate leech to faith is how strongly the flesh wants deeply to function by the visible.

We tend to want to see, or foresee, the results of efforts we intend to make.  Our inclination is to chart out as best we can what will transpire by our leaps of faith.  On top of that, if we can't seem to fathom strong accomplishment, we feel more secure to sit on our hands with probable simultaneous sighing.

Faith is the guts of the spiritual world.  It is not being glad matters eased a bit when having been under strain.  No.  Faith believes what isn't can become (Romans 4:17).  As mentioned in that text, its strongest potential is mentioned; death being transformed into life.

The wonderful world of believing God is not a system whereby we fold our hands and just wait out circumstances hoping for the best.  Relationship with the living, powerful, involved-in-our-lives God brings a whole new approach to our days.  We imagine what can be; even if there is neither rhyme nor reason as to why or how it should develop.

Faith is THE game-changer.  I urge you to push back with faith.  Believe.  Pray believing.  Apply expectation of results.  Dare to launch into the story of your day with confidence that God is present and willing to activate a quite fascinating world of wonder.

Hope is in the air.  Jesus is no longer in the grave.  May we have the courage to live from that proposition.

TRYING TO LIVE FROM THE SAFETY-NEST

Being a person can take its toll...on being a person.

We do have the elements to fight, don't we?  What's weird is that, as much as we resent personal criticism from any other, we feel such freedom to whittle ourselves down to size before our opponents enter the ring.  Truthfully, sometimes the enemy is us.

I wish to give you a boost--and for some possibly a hearty shove--out of the safety nest from which we try to do life.  I am convinced, being a people person, that far too many never experience the grand scale of life afforded them by God.  These abide in fear, stress, and clear hesitation.

So you might get some things wrong?  Who doesn't?  You fear you would say the wrong thing along the way?  Most of us do.  These factors that wish to intimidate us do much more.  They choke us out.

We cannot survive trying to live from the safety-nest.  We miss out.  Really, while we reside there (in that place we believe to be protected) we do not find robust living.  No. We experience the dull routine of getting by.

So what would I recommend?

Check your belief factors.  Are such orifices clogged with self-hindering-talk?  Are you too prideful to fail?  Life takes risks.  You have much to offer the world...truly, really, honestly.  So don't live in a bubble of self-denial for in doing so you tend to rob your friends and neighbors of the authentic you.

You are enough to make a difference.  Try not to hold back; but step up and step out. The world is growing darker because more and more people are hiding their light under bushel baskets.  Let's leave the safety-nest and brighten the world one conversation at a time!

WILL WE BE READY FOR PERSECUTION?

Yes, I've already written my daily post.  However, a very strong urge to write at this moment is placed upon my heart.  I believe for good reason.

Let us give care to our absolute, most foundational, stance before God.  At the moment I think we don't.  Allow me to explain.

Our spiritual world in America has been quite relaxed; selfish, if I may say so.  We (others and myself) have divided and then perpetuated Belief Camps; each often contesting the other.  Within each Belief Camp usually there is the list of Belief DOs and Belief DON'Ts.  Thus, the exercise of standing against those in another Belief Camp.  And....we very much mean it.

Individuals, families, and even businesses subtly suffer due to our divisive, yet highly promoted, styles.  Such religious contests seem to offer drive and energy.  Debates have been held.  Feelings have been injured.  The entire religious scheme gets little more than an apathetic shrug by the masses who are annoyed with the lot of us.

What I'm about to say is only me.  So do allow the grains of salt to assess.  But I believe American churches are in for a very rude, yet wonderfully necessary, awakening. Persecution is a heartbeat away.  Bible-toting citizens are most likely going to be challenged like we've never known.

And this is why I write about this.  Be ready for the stress that one like me can't quantify nor describe.  But, be prepared.  Terror is in the wings.  It will terrorize.

Yet, I believe that something will happen simultaneously.  Our religiosity will suffer set-forward (not set-back).  We will drop our accusations toward those we thus far have deemed obscene in several of their beliefs and we will embrace Jesus; the very one who has been banned from most of our doctrinal argumentations.

Jesus, in His Spirit, will begin to receive the accolades always intended.  Churches which have fought over worship styles, yet not being necessarily overt worshipers themselves, will find a delightful desperation for experiencing the presence of the Spirit.  We.  Will.  Worship.  Like we've never done before as we are forced to decide; Him or the enemy?

I believe we are already seeing believers of various preferences drawing to one another due to Jesus.  Indeed, we have our convictions; and well we should.  But we have allowed ourselves to make our beliefs our god.  Opinions run rampant.  Experiential relationship with God has not been our driving call.

Life in any church is not just WHAT we believe.  Nor is it WHERE we do our believing. It is clearly essential that the WHO should dominate our voices as well as our practices.

GOOD MORNING! ANOTHER SATURDAY IS FACING US!

Shall we defy the thoughtless tendency of the world by failing to flinch when the rough stuff happens?  May we not pretend it didn't take place.  But rather, might we live brightly from the Light that assures us that He has paid for the damages?

This life in Jesus isn't a Sunday School activity.  It is real life played out on real earth while bumping into real people who wonder....is God real?

We seek not merely that our days go well.  What we pursue is the ability to praise God when we aren't sitting in pew the other six days.  We intentionally bring up to God how truly honored we are of Him and by Him for all that He does day in as well as day out.

Good morning friend!  Another Saturday is facing us!

May we inherit it with gusto.  Me?  I've got taxes to figure.  How many wish they could leave their prison cells or their hospital beds and work on the mundaness of such confusing paper work?

Millions would trade me simply because they got to have an income!  And...I get to be one who does.

Good morning!  Another Saturday is facing us!  And....our name is in the line-up!  We best be suiting up!

THE POWER OF GOD THAT WE WISH WASN'T TRUE

The power of God is perfected in weakness (II Cor. 12:9) is what I had stamped in gold on the front of my Bible some 35 years ago.  This amazing truth endures the ages as one of the greatest secrets I ever could have imagined....yet I have so often wished it wasn't true.

I wanted power to be in other traits and then....I wanted all of them in me.  The deep desire to be rich, influential, or powerful due to personal skills, political pull in the church, and magic fame owned me.  My goal was to be a somebody.

But, truth be told, I was none of these.  What's worse is that I was the opposite.  But when I read that Corinthian text (and believed it), my world transformed into a dream. If power was perfected in weakness, then I must be an entire one-man Power Plant!

If weakness equals power...yippee!!  I have some!!  We have some!!  No, we have lots!!

So here's what I've learned through experience.  The only way the Kingdom of God will click in our personal walk is to believe and accept the reality that in order to be a somebody we must believe we are a nobody.  However, this idea causes immediate heartburn to those who might be selfishly ambitious.

But, oh my, what hope!  What a unique window of possibility for the thousands of us that wish we could make a difference; yet find our inner inventory quite lacking.  What a new drive when the very thing, personal weakness, is discovered to be the fuel that drives the effective engine of imagination, outreach, and accomplishment.

My advice?  Don't fight it.  And please don't try to redirect it.  Let weakness do its intended design; impact the entire world for the good.  We aren't in life to make a name for ourselves.  No.  We are living to honor the name of Jesus.

WHY CAN WE GET OUR ACT TOGETHER?

My heart is enamored with thoughts of people.  You know people?  The celebrative, the lonely, the critic, the comparer, the dreamer, or possibly the effective follower?  My point is that while we all wear skin, we are a multiplicity of variablistic formations.  The differences are endless among us.

From a Christian's perspective (speaking of variablistic) there is at least a subtle desire for all to know God. We reach, we contribute, we pray.  Our hearts' desire is for every person to experience the vast and immeasurable love of God.

But, in general, too many just don't do it.

Many talk the talk.  Several walk it.  Yet overall, there is some sort of grand disconnect.  Our message isn't being heard.  Great and wonderful friends (everyone knows several someones who are a part of the church fabric) continue to smile at us; but interest in the spiritual that we believe important?  Numb.

Why is there little response?  To requestion, what would generate interest?

There's this thing we believers do that surely closes us off from the very ones we wish to deeply encourage.  We don't see our own sins.  It's as if we sit in a church house now with a terribly warped attitude that the rest of the world should get its act together.

But there's this glare coming from us.  I had it for years.  While God insisted that all had sinned and fell short of the glory of God, I felt that somehow I was one of the exemptions.  I had developed a sin-categorical system that blamed others; but reduced mine to, should I say, worthy of a mere fine yes.  But God's condemnation?  Oh, no.

The sin.  Our sin.  It isn't meager.  It's exaggerated beyond our ability for intake as to the depth and width of the devastation.  Until we awaken to our own, personal, enlarged, very true sins, we will never offer anything that the communities of hurting, lonely people need.  They aren't interested in our Sunday-ish platitudes.

These want to know if failers could be rescued.  They want to know if there is any hope for the person who vows to do better and finds a massive self-addiction.  Is there hope for the regular, unchurched, ordinary individual who hasn't a clue what all of this God-chatter is about?

Of course, the answer is a robust YES!  But until we dismount from our high-church horses and realize that, of all of the sinners, that we are among the chiefest, we will never have a legitimate message of hope for anyone else.  Our evangelism will only be wishful thinking.

Why, then, can we get our act together?  We can because we voluntarily position ourselves at the lowest rung of the ladder (at the foot of the Cross) when it comes to accomplishment in faith.  We are not the holier-than-Thou sort that many assume.  Rather, we are deeply in need of His mercy and grace for we fail daily at carrying effective crosses.

By HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS we are saved.  Not our own.  Our own admission of our exorbitant lack would nudge us drastically closer to getting our act together.  Don't you think?

WHAT GOOD IS GOD?

What difference does God make?  Is this faith stuff legit?  Are there elements to life that really do come about due to His engagement and involvement in our lives?

These are significant questions.  We live in such a time that we need answers.  Religion on it's surface can seem confusing, even repulsive, to oh so many.  Therefore, I'm curious as to whether a solution might be found if our perspective could be slightly adjusted.

What good is God?  What is it He does...actually?  Why should one bother to seek Him; to invest in Him?  Or, is this a mere imaginary concept within man's nature to develop something beyond fathomability which we may have invented on our own...our own god?

In so many places God doesn't sell well these days.  It isn't because of an increase in crime.  Neither is the decline in morality to be the blame.  I believe the light in the church has dimmed.  And, why would (or could) this be the case?  Has the brightness intended by God actually reached that hidden under a bushel (basket) position that Jesus referenced?

Here's my take; which admittedly is only one person's opinion.  Yet, I care very much about the church and our neighbors.

I believe we have subtly reduced the brilliant message of Heaven to earth by programming into faithful attenders that the big difference God makes is that when one dies, if these have done everything right, they will go to Heaven; not Hell.  This is a significant and costly error.

Let this doctrine stand alone as the main emphasis of a believer's thrust and there will be immediate disengagement with our neighbors.  Our drive, from such a hope-I-go-to-Heaven-when-its-over, has become one very self-inclined thread.  Oh, others are a fine sort; but we have no passion nor compassion for them if our main personal drive is to make sure we move Heavenward, not Hellward, when we take our last breath.

With this doctrinal error at the forefront of our church habit, even the power of God is reduced.  We don't need Him to operate in our dailiness since we do believe that Jesus died for our sins and that there really is a Heaven.  Other than that we become obsessed with church attendance as the marker of a good Christian without confidence or even the need for God to function.

This leaves God out of our day by day lives.  Yet, we surely need Him.  We need Him to rescue us day by day.  He is the critical element in our message to our colleagues and neighbors.  It is God  who is to be loved; not our behavioral church skill-set.  It is God who brings about wonder and awe.

What good is God?  He.  Is.  Life.  Abundant.  Right.  Now.  Without Him, we are big bags of wind who annoy the daylights out of our communities.  With Him we introduce joy to the sorrows, patience to the worried, and hope to the devastated....now...not someday...but right now.

'TIS THE SEASON TO BE POLITICAL

I love right now.  We have the Democrat Debates.  We have the Republican Debates.  I watch both as if it were baseball season.  I hate to see them end....really.

Because I am a leader of people and very much a people person, I enjoy studying these whose calling seem to be inclined toward connecting with people via political viewpoints.  It's much more than gathering votes; but eventually being of skillful talent to pull our nation into jointly effective productivity.

There's a thing that I see--am sure you do as well--among these candidates that causes significant concern.  These quite professional individuals' very call in life is to live among the masses in a leadership role that will require incredible depth of other-interest and patience.  These will encounter perpetual mountains of inner testing as to endurance.

It.  Will.  Not.  Be.  Easy.

In listening to the powerful debates, there seems that many possess a very short fuse. Tempers don't really flare; but they do seem to be a bit ruffled around the edges.  If these become animatedly frustrated over a debate, what are we to believe regarding their future approach to say Putin or to Iran?

Sighing?  Cramming back sharp retorts?  Torqued?

While it is the season to be political...and I really enjoy the season...I want to point out to us that we are day by day on the stage of debate.  How do we handle the clunky clerk at the store who can't get the change returned correctly?  Or, the driver who cuts in? Or, the spouse who doesn't understand...for the third time?

Yes, the political temperament is a reflection of society; even of the church.  It is not okay to be impatient...or snarly...or rude...or sharp-tongued.  It isn't acceptable in church and neither is it alright in the general public.  Leaders are leaders when we can walk through the fire while very genuinely interested in the welfare of even our opponents.

AN UNSTUCKILISTIC NEED AMONG US

The Christian movement is stuck.  The need for us to open up to God and to people is in desperation mode...right now.  The Good News of God is still very much a refreshing message of hope and wonder.  Yet, we as individuals who have the freedom to think on our own have taken the most liberating message of all history and reduced it to our size; small.

The church is stuck.  Oh, it isn't that we don't get to do marvelous things.  It isn't that no one ever believes past the human management for so many do.  However, the over-all fabric of the Christian momentum is shackled in shyness, fear, and even arrogance.

It doesn't take Rocket Science to influence this earth-turf called the human existence. It takes a very basic element; love.  The deep love of God and the enduring love for others remains the fundamental call of God and the impacting nature of neighbor for neighbor.

There is a most unstuckilistic need among us.  That is to go against the grain of human nature and live our lives for the benefit of others.  The "others" is the challenge for anyone can love those who love them back.  The catch of Christianity is to love those who can't stand us, who deplore us, and who do much to attack the nature of Jesus.

It is from the Cross that we are to die; not from the pew that we are to espouse our religious favoritisms.  It is from the ditches that we will find the hurting.  It is from the depressionists that we can offer the rich impression of hope.

Come loose, my friend.  Dare to see others.  Whether in tattered dress or rented tux, every person is a valuable heartbeat of God.  He reached to us/them.  It is our call to see that everyone in the world gets to hear.

Don't mumble.  Don't speak as if into a bucket where no one can hear.  Let your voice be heard as light coming from atop a hill.

It isn't that the world is growing dark.  It is that the church has gone far to silent with its responsible words of hope.  May we be testimonies of walking forgiveness from God that others might be drawn in.

PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW GOD

Wonderful people want to know God.  We must assume such about every person we know.  Whether their talk and their walk would indicate such, very dear people have deep and private concerns about whether this God-stuff is true.

Those like me, church-goers and such, must ever be aware that there is a strong possibility that our neighbors and colleagues would like to know God; but they don't know how to interpret our church obsession.  We must be sensitive for at times we come off holier-than-Thou when, in reality, we are truly in this for the forgiveness/start-life-over factor ourselves.

We don't think so, but others may likely believe we've got life all figured out.  We don't.  Friends might assume that we've quit sinning; got a grip on it, and now live squeaky clean.  Wrong.  Indeed, we do try to move through our days in stronger faith.  Yet, if the blood of Jesus doesn't cover us, we are all sunk.

People, very good people, want to know God.  We will do well to understand their apprehension for we must not forget our own tender thoughts in days past.  For any of us who imply that we have arrived; shame on us.  No one gets through if Jesus didn't pay for our tickets.

People want to know God.  Maybe if they could see we are real instead of plastic or cardboard they could begin to let down their defenses in order to discover a new life....just as we have.

INCREDIBLE LIFE!

I urge each of us to yield to those common sense factors which sound good to our own ears; but in reality are excuses to refrain from trusting God.  Our serving, our loving, our reaching, even our giving tend to be guarded when these should rather be executed.

We practice as if God is one big IF rather than the magnificent YES.  He is the one who calls us to an incredible life.  We vote as to whether we accept the offer.

Walking in the Kingdom Corridors includes perpetual release of our own well-thought-out security.  We read about crossing the Red Sea or the feeding of the 5000 as if these are merely good story book concepts as children place their heads upon their pillows of an evening.

To walk by faith is the call to every believer.  The challenge is very simple; whether we will have the courage to believe it.  We must, want, and will increase our faith in order to experience the incredible life He offers....while here on earth.

THE STRONGEST INFLUENCE

The strongest influence in our lives.  What would you think?  Money?  Friends?  Education?  Career?  Family?  Or how about none of these.

What would you think about words?

Whether incoming or outgoing, words create.  They produce strong hope or they may dismantle it.  Things said launch strugglers toward success.  Too, such a dynamic can flatten any day of those who are successful.

Words make our break our hearts.  Our moods often shift according to these constant morsels of chatter.

God exerted not muscle but words to create the world.  He separated darkness from light by the simple magnificent power of saying so.  We are created in His image.

Whether things spoken to us by others or words we say to them, our days are framed by the very super-power of what is said.  The strongest influence in our lives is found in the power of the tongue.

WHY BEING A CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN ISN'T ENOUGH

I would be considered as in the mix of the Christian brands known for our conservatism.  There are factors within these ranks of which I both adhere as well as find myself deeply committed.  The God-inspired Bible, the Trinity, and the magnificent call of God for all to be baptized into His Son for the forgiveness of sins would be a few.

There is a glitch.  Our conservatism is being worn as a badge of Heaven's authenticity to make a statement that, We are in.  The implication is that those not like us are out. But there is found a gaping hole.  Such religious posture can be (and is) held without the firm foundation of knowing Jesus.

Not so strangely, this mis-belief perpetually costs the church effective advancement into the dark world.

This is an essential rub against the self-assurance that we have done everything God asked to be saved.  We can rattle off steps to be saved.  We can hold our Bibles high in confidence of both it...and us.  While these and other concepts sound good to ourselves, it lacks a factor.  No.  It lacks THE factor.

Being a conservative Christian isn't enough.  Many have paraded a handy belief system that sounds good in rehearsal among ourselves.  Yet we are often found to lack the spiritual drive to take such conviction to the streets.  And, why is it that such church bravery doesn't translate into evangelistic outreach?

The reason is clear.  There doesn't seem to be an over-load of Jesus.  Frankly, for those who stand most rigid among us, such arguments are not built around knowing Jesus.

Not knowing Jesus would explain why most conservatives carry deep and vocal opinions; yet usually such bold ideas are mainly expressed in Bible-class settings and not out in public.  The absence of Jesus causes us to hide; hide in our doctrine and hide from the responsibility of outreach.

Our bent on just believing what the Bible says is a correct goal.  It is the Bible that calls all to believe in Jesus with heart; not just with the mind.  It is Jesus who said that he had a problem with church leaders who were enamored with functioning from the Bible and, yet, refusing to have a relationship with him.

He sounds serious.  I think he is.

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him (Jn 5:39-43).

TO LIVE IN CRITICISM OF ANYONE

One will never understand anything about people until we first realize what an absolute mess self is.  This major point seems to very handily get by us.  The opposite seems to be truer.  If others would be like me, this world would be better off.

The most glaring doctrinal error in any church/every church is that of sensing how wrong others are without a hint of the fact that we ourselves have flaws which are so enormous we should never point an accusing finger toward another.

This is, in reality, what Jesus consistently taught.  Yet, we somehow believe we have mastered the Master's directives and need them no more.

Wrong.  Error.  Mistaken conclusion.

The opposite is true.  Individually we are so desperately flawed it took the perfect, ideal Son of God to be executed in order to give us any hope.  Do you get that?

Any.  Hope.

When you see the error of another's ways, this doesn't mean your evaluation is mistaken.  But if you reach a point of criticism, believing yourself to be less guilty, you are committing the larger sin.  No one is exempt from needing the blood of Jesus....because we are all that sinful.

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

To live in criticism of anyone is a very big mistake.

ALERT: WATCH FOR THE MAFIA BOSSES WITHIN YOUR HEART

Faith.  Hope.  Love.  These three are Bible biggies.

Yet, significant irony transpires.  There is nothing greater on earth that the church has to offer in our attitudes and behaviors.  To the church, to the very entity of Christian values, these three can become mere yawners while we are in the hunt for greater detail and insight into church theologies.

But the emphasis upon these three?  We've heard it.  We've studied it.  We know it. The challenge is for us to be able to walk it.

Faith, hope, and love are the vital signs of life within each of us.  These are the driving, never-giving-up, forces that help us conquer indifference as well as mediocrity.  We are in need of this supply.  The world is in trouble because of this lack among us.

The archenemy to faith is doubt, to hope is condemnation, and to love is fear.  Doubt, condemnation, and fear are like Mafia Bosses to the inner spirit.  We find opposition to the driving force of the kingdom waging war with The Bosses.  The battle goes on invisibly within our hearts.

Believe me, it is a fierce engagement of tactical maneuvers.  The Bosses are pushy. They seem to bully their way into our dreams, our plans, and our activities.  But they must not be allowed to either preside or vote.

Faith, hope, and love....these three will conquer not only the world...they will devastate a very bad day.

WE ARE TO BELIEVE WITH OUR HEARTS

One of the challenges of trying to live a life in the Spirit of God is that our hearts play such a major role in the process.  Emotions can play havoc on our days; yet they are a central force in our walk.

Jesus was often presenting the value, as well as impact, of the heart.  The flesh, however, deeply desires that such is to be overridden by the detailed argument of the mind.  The mind is quite significant.  It is persuaded however by the heart.

When the heart fears the mind wavers.  When the heart is secure, even the most challenging moments are courageously taken to task because of emotions like confidence or trust.  Thus, the reason that belief includes the heart.  It determines whether we shall pursue or wither.

Jesus stated that one is to have faith in God.  He illustrated it from a matter of what the heart thinks.  "Whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him."  Does not doubt due to his talent?  Or due to his mind?  Or due to his reputation?

The heart is the key factor to moving the very heavy obstacles in our way.  Jesus is not teaching that one should go through life rearranging waterways, pastures, and landscape.  He is taking the largest, heaviest entity we know and saying that a convicted heart can move mountains.

At times it can be said of an athlete that he or she lost because their heart wasn't in it.  Their muscles were in it.  Their understanding of the rules was in it.  Even their grasp of the assigned task was without uncertainty.  But....they lost because their heart just wasn't in it.

This is what I see with too many who seem to imply by their actions that they are not serious about their faith.  Attendance is in it.  These may even flip a few coins into the collection plate or possibly volunteer to manage a booth at the children's event.  Yet, when these serve from duty and not from the abiding love which comes from the heart it is a very deadening process.

We are to believe with our hearts.  Convince the heart and one is all in.  Go into an effort without such an inner conviction and eventual complaining and quitting will be sure to follow.  Too many are in church as long as they like it; like the preaching, like the music, like the location, etc.  But if the heart is not foundational, a reason will arise to cause us to flat walk away.

Believe...not with our proof texts nor with our rote answers...but believe to the extent that we really do believe what the kingdom system is all about; authentic, realistic, and ultra-alive.

MY REMARKABLE LIFE AS A ST. LOUIS CARDINAL

I'll soon be headed out to Jupiter, Fl. for several days of suiting up and playing the game.  Maybe 20 former Cardinal players will try to coach eight teams of us baseball wannabe stars.  It's a challenge..for the coaches.

Me?

Well, at 68, I'm most likely the oldest player in camp.  But that's not my only term of notoriety.  I'm also the worst player in the camp as has been publicly declared by Bob Gibson and Al Hrabosky.  Of the one hundred or so campers I am the last one picked...every year.  I don't look at that as negative; but rather a matter of consistency.

Truthfully, I think the organization feels obligated to make some unfortunate team captain select me.  I like to think of it as probably the Cardinal organization pays some poor manager hefty bucks to take me!

When we take the field, I'm often on the bench.  The coaches just can't figure where to hide me.  Regardless of where they try, the ball always finds me.  Go figure.  I bat last in the line-up.  I'm not exactly regarded as a clean-up hitter as much as I am as the just-get-it-over-with batter.

But hey, I don't mind.  My goal has always been to look good in my uniform anyway. Sure, I'll sign an autograph here and pose for a picture there.  The problem with that is that I have to pay these individuals to ask for such in front of my peers.  Bummer.

This will be my 32nd year.  What a fantastic experience.  As I reflect on becoming close friends with Curt Flood, getting knocked unconscious during a game at Busch when Bob Gibson swung through a fast ball and the bat came around and hit me in the head, or writing a book for Carole Buck about Jack and the Cardinals gave the book away on Fan Appreciation Day in 2003, I am certain that I am the luckiest man I ever met.

Sure....I may not have baseball talent, but I make up for it with creative errors.

WE ALL LIVE IN THE SAME BOAT

While great diversity is among us and about us, a fundamental similarity reigns.  We are sinful beyond our imagination and redeemed to even a greater extent.  This is a puzzle to society; both in and out of the church.  We can't fathom the glory of God's effective reach.

We are each such chiefest of sinners which only magnifies the saving work of Jesus on the Cross.  To look down upon one other person is to gravely misunderstand the ruin of self.  Should we boost our egos in comparison to a less other, we will have sorely mismanaged our ability to think clearly.

We are never right because another behaves poorly.  We are always and only right because Jesus became all of our wrongs.  Look at him upon the Cross; bloodied and beaten.  God had it our with us...each of us at that scene.

Because he arose...we each may arise in the wonder of it all for we all live in the same boat.

MAYBE WE COULD BREAK AWAY FROM BEING THE WAY WE ARE

I know.  I know that is a rather strange, maybe obscure, title.  It isn't exactly how I think it should be; but the thread is.  I wish to address those of us who go through our days as if we give them little thought as to how they might advance from dull routine to incredible adventure.

This isn't all there is.  Life is popping with unpopped kernels of exploration as well as potential.  Yet, we sub or un consciously settle for less; fewer dreams, smaller hopes. We seem to give up while proceeding onward.

But maybe we could break away from the "going nowhere" indifference that really brings very little satisfaction.  Just maybe we could break into a dream-like world where the fabulous happens and the impossible becomes possible.  After all, that is the walk and the talk of Jesus.

Have you accepted the fact that life to this point is all there is?  Do you believe that it is quite acceptable to love those who love you and hate those who hate you as if nothing can change the latter?  Are you convinced that the "beyond imagination" passage of Ephesians three is broken and, therefore, the way it is....is the way it will always be?

Have you lost hope?  Wonder?  Enthusiasm?

I think many have.  I believe mankind-at-large either never knew or else has forgotten to reach for the stars because the wonder of God is out there.

We see others do it.  Why can't we?  This activity of great hope is as close as flipping the Off switch in our hearts to On.  I witness some stuck in bitterness.  Their days are full of negativity and sarcasm.  Blame is the constant name of their game.  But such is glaring error.

We are within a given heartbeat to rethink.  We can rethink our "doom and gloom" attitude by believing that what isn't yet can become.  This isn't for some.  It is for everyone.

Maybe we could break away from being the way we are?  Well, if the way we are is grumpy, grouchy, and gruntled (as in dis), then a new life awaits.  It doesn't linger when or if others change...ever.

A renovated experience of being blessed presents itself in immediate possibility by you and me simply believing those rough and negative situations will change once we accept responsibility to take a personal step forward by seeing raw hope in every situation.  Our happiness is never dependent upon the behavior of another.  It is clearly dependent upon how we choose to manage our interior thoughts.

THE WHETHER REPORT

The Whether Report is a daily experience.  We find it to be good or not so much.  Our lives are not dependent upon the reports; but rather on how we set our sails.

It doesn't matter where one lives, nor does it make a difference regarding age, fascination is available to every individual....now.  This emotion has nothing to do with breaks--good or bad--but with mindset.  Mindset is a selection; a choice.

Life is not forced upon us.  Indeed, injury and disappointment curtail; even rob.  It isn't whether bad things happen for they do....to everyone.  The Whether Report is dependent upon one's choice to celebrate or to bemoan.  It is not dependent upon circumstance nor personality.

I noted a very encouraging truth today; new seems to reign.  How long has man occupied earth?  (Well, Terry, you are just so incredibly deep!!!)  My point is that new reigns.  I saw an ad yesterday of the 2016 Chevy pickups.  Automobiles escalate in new.

Even if one is a fan of a '56 Chevy, as am I, no one owns one and leaves it the way it was. The owner will upgrade the headliner, go over the motor (like with new plugs?), etc. to make a valuable antique of a car....look like it just came off of the showroom floor.  New dominates.

Antique collectors, as am I, take wonderful old relics and labor intensely to make them look...new.

From whence does this drive come?  It is the nature of Father.  He is creative.  The Bible speaks of us being new everyday.  At my age my body doesn't feel exactly pristine.  However, my inner me is newer today than yesterday just as Two Corinthians 4:16 insists.

The Whether Report is always good news to every reader.  We have every reason to do more than make it through our day.  We believe the Whether Report gives us room to allow the Creator room to do His stuff.

We shall be more than positive.  We will fully expect that regardless of input and information, we will be determined to note the new which will arise from every routine moment.

INDEPENDENT DAYS OF WONDER

Everyone loves (even treasures) a positive feel-good day.  Those who believe God and walk with God sense that even the rough spots are to be valued.  This is a fundamental difference between belief and un.

As one scans the Bible there is a strong mixture of upset and reward, suffering and celebration, even death and life.  Followers do not find themselves exempt from stress and strain of even the extreme nature.

So if there is no difference in the kinds of days, why bother believing in God?

Explanation and discussion will be eternal.  One of the ideas dear to my heart is that each twist and turn of life is never our boss as to our moods nor attitudes.  We are free to choose to live independent days of great wonder simply because we know that God runs this show.

Our lives are not based upon whether one gets the job, signs the contract, or wins the lottery.  Nothing...absolutely nothing...deters a believer in God from having a wonder-filled life.  Nothing.

Some great contributors to society are found to have capitalized on their time spent in concentration camps while others offer us very little from their plush abode in high-rise luxury.  The location, the elevation, the good breaks or bad have little to do with whether we might live in wonder.

Wonder isn't a state of mind.  It is a fact.  I spent far too many days bemoaning me.  I rehearsed all of my many gigantic, obvious-to-all, flaws.  I bathed them in thought and lined them up late at night so that I could wear them as my start to the new day. Miserable and negative, there seemed to be no wonder because someone else always got to it first.

Silver spoons?  I seemed to have none.  But short straws?  Oh, a drawer full.

God changes all of this.  This isn't pretense or psych-up.  For every person wonder reigns independently of circumstance or relationship.  Life depends on no one else; not their behavior nor their deed.  Life...wonder-filled life...takes place in our own hearts and minds completely independent upon anything beyond our power-packed relationship with the Master.

Today....take a good look.  Blessings abound; even and especially in the center of moments which might tempt you to believe otherwise.

WHY DON'T SOME CHRISTIANS PRAY?

I speak not from criticism of a few; but rather, first, from experience of me.  For years as the one person in the church who should have been praying, I was not.  I did not. And I can't explain the precise whys or why-nots; but a slight glimpse into this oddity might open some of us to begin to pray more fervently.

Oddity?  Yes, this is so very strange among us.  We want others to be believers; yet, there are standard matters of which we seem, by our own inaction, to disregard ourselves...specifically today...prayer.  For believers in God to spend little (maybe none) time in prayer might be a testimony to our authentic disbelief.

I'm not sure this is a national thing; but I'm raising the question as to whether we Christians are still quite hung up on the visible.  The reason this is significant is that faith functions from the invisible base.  We are to walk by faith; not by sight.  Faith is the conviction of things not seen.

Prayer may have been aborted because we would rather be from Missouri where seeing is believing.  Prayer is avoided because man wants results and when we don't get immediate gratification for our efforts; we abandon such as a waste of time.  Think about it.  If one doesn't believe that prayer matters, then all such time is merely a wasted consumption of minutes as well as oxygen.

Yet, a bigger question is, "Why do Christians pray?"

We believe that what isn't yet can become...Romans 4:17.  We are certain that an invisible God runs this show.  But all that we have to verify this is....that we believe it. Of course, this leaves one quite vulnerable.

We pray because we are sure that there is a relationship with this invisible God of ours.  We note throughout our days huge clues as to His activity, to His life on earth in the form of Jesus, and His productivity via the Holy Spirit.

To pray expecting and believing does not mean we send orders to Heaven and delivery will be quicker than UPS.  To pray doesn't mean that we smoke out a signal and God's angels come a-running.

To pray means to believe even when others don't.  It means to endure, when so many quit.  It calls the heart to never give up; even if interference or stress or even death steps into the middle of our party.

Prayer is not a demanding note to God that we want and we expect to get.  However, it does seem to play a major role in our walk when we shift from believing that time spent in prayer is not about submitting our wish list; but is more about our submission to His wish list.

Why don't some Christians pray?  We may have become too enamored with getting what we want and when we don't see it happen on our timetable, we assume that it is the idea that prayer is flawed; never ourselves.

AROSE HE DID. AND SO DO WE.

There is no circumstance of stress that would be insurmountable.  There is no crushed relationship that cannot be healed.  There is no riddle of life that cannot be solved. There is no steep hill that cannot be successfully climbed.

When Jesus broke the bonds of death by arising from the grave, he set the world of trouble on its edge.  He punched bad days squarely in the nose.  Yes, we must not forget that even Jesus was in the darkness of the tomb; but only for three days.

He took earth's greatest field of seemingly permanent discouragement...the cemetery...and turned it into an A-Rose garden.

Your pressures....all of them are only temporary as well.

Stand up....and live.

THINK LIKE A NEWBORN

One of the things that I just treasure about the Kingdom is its perspective on the new. We are a new creation.  We are anticipated to be new day by day.  New is a key factor of the God and man harmony.  Not so surprisingly, however, is that there is such disdain in churches for the new.

Of all of the places, churches ought to be the greatest stage for God to get to perform His talent.  Give Him room to show His stuff!

Yet, something happens to us.  The process is oh-so-slow.  Take a look at the difference between and newborn and a 21-year old.  Vast difference.  Age.  Yet it took every bit of twenty-one years.  And what goes on in that time is, while granted there are those natural processes of ongoing life, a vast amount of flexibility, ambition, imagination, and exploration begin to wane.

It is here that God's call for all to be born again is significantly vital as well as ultra-exciting.  The Fountain of Youth is to be a factual part of our spirits; not our flesh. Does this new mean that we never learn?  No it means we never quit learning.  Does it imply that we'll never know God?  No, it suggests that we will ever be discovering vastly new and most amazing dimensions of Him.

Mankind is forever attacked by arthritis of the joints of both thinking and believing. Our senses are to expand; not contract.  We are to allow the directives of the Living God to flow through our very beings.  This isn't a Sunday School lesson.  It is to be a Sunday through Saturday experience; all seven days.

Grow young.  And tomorrow find yourself even more younger than any yesterday.  This isn't a pretentious consideration.  It is His expectation of us, for us, with us, and through us. Never give up on becoming....becoming new in your approach to life.

Never settle for the mediocrity--or even he curtailment of getting to really live because the flesh is either tired...or afraid...or both.  We are called for more than decline; much more.  Think like a newborn; growing in mesmerizing wow!

DARE WE BE BELIEVERS?

Has the belief factor for men and women been stolen?  Have we hit a wall that has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with whether one has the heart to peer past the obvious; the seen?  Our world is a in a conflicting spin; a world of hurt and one of hope.

What is one to think these days?  Pain is here.  Frustration is there.  Is our only hope that Sunday morning church goes well?

Now--of all times--is the moment of believing.  And be encouraged, there are light-years of untapped potential and possibility for humanity now, today, at this very window of time.

I inquire as to whether our faith has taken on somewhat of a reduction that God would never have called believing.  Have we opted for current trends with a shrug of, Well, we gave prayer a shot; but nothing changed?  Those of us who insistently believe in God and His dynamic, have we lost our push, our press, our up for the battle?

Faith isn't attending a church nor is it vouching for an organized system of serving others.  Faith is a certainty that what doesn't appear to be feasible, in reality, exists. Church attendance and church participation can very well indicate strong faith.  Too it may, for some, be nothing more than a check-mark of activity on a religious calendar. The former finds meaning.  The latter increases in both boredom and frustration.

Be encouraged.  Believe God.  Believe Him in arenas of talent, skill, and provision which would seem absurd; even ridiculous.  If one can believe the Bible, then surely He seems to have spent a lot of time--like from cover to cover--exposing the fleshly wisdom and its trek as weak, foolish, lacking, and very old school.

Dare to believe.  It takes courage.

ARE YOU LOSING GROUND OR GAINING MOMENTUM?

I think that what I'm about to tell you surely has to be one of the stranger oddities of the life system.  It would seem that across the board real life experiences a consistent losing of ground.  Opportunities of possibility will always overwhelm as we are such creatures of crawl when it comes to new ideas.

Note I didn't yet use that one word which is regarded by some as a swear word; change.

Could it be that it is a pattern of being alive that we are losing ground?  Consider science.  The more one discovers the more one finds there is yet to be discovered. While gaining a bit of knowledge discovery finds that we just got a bit more behind.

So it is in the spiritual (known as the religious) world.  The learning of one word's original meaning may shift or alter twenty-five other assumed truths to this point. God is so vastly immeasurable that, just as in science, every time one turns a corner to grasp something new of Him it seems the unknown just expanded.  And, it must.

So whether physical or spiritual, whether visible or invisible, discovery of one detail may offer clarity for one itch while, simultaneously, a whole new world of rash breaks out.

Here's what I want you to ponder.  Do you realize that while we are losing ground we are actually gaining momentum?  As we enter breakthrough moments, we are likely to be found quite inspired in imagination as to what yet can be uncovered.  And when we do break through we will most likely be faced with more (not less) unanswered questions.

We can take the factual losing of ground as negative if we so choose.  But why not take the very same thing as a charge to the wow and the wonder and the awe of what yet can/could/may possibly be.  Lose ground and become stuck?  Or, lose ground and be enthused at what else can me known?

 It's a choice...that we...get to make.

WHY YOU SHOULD LIKE RIGHT NOW

Regardless of circumstance, there are matters of each moment that can be observed with favor.  Let's face it.  Bad things happen.  They seem set on it.  So it isn't a question of whether they will or won't.  The question is whether we will decide to manage these offences to where they are productive.

It is always a decision.

We are never hand-cuffed.  Hurt?  At times.  Highly offended?  Well, yes.  Devastated? On occasion.  Advantaged?  Every time.

When we give our lives over to Jesus to take us places, two things must dominate; our love for God and for others.  The only part we see of ourselves in this picture is outward direction.  When we are set on loving God and intensely being attentive to the needs of others, we are finally and perfectly lost in the grandest scheme of life.

Why we should like right now is that regardless of ups or downs, these moments are consistently about God and about others.  Whether winning the lottery or losing a friend, both settings are rich in building others up, making their day, and celebrating the reality of God included/involved in our moves.  Otherwise, church is hollow.

Why you should like right now is that it is brimmed-full, jamb-packed meaningful. That we be encouraged or discouraged is never the main point.  That God and others be given our attention are the two things which bring the oddest, and yet most celebrated, meaning.

And, truthfully, there are a lot of frightened, hungry, forgotten souls who would trade one of their days for one of yours.  Therefore, live.  Don't kinda live.  Don't sorta live. Don't moodily live.

Live like one of your best moments ever....is....right....now!!
(And how about that!  Spellcheck just okayed moodily!)

A WORD OF HOPE TO PARENTS

I cheer you on, moms and dads.  Use those constant negative infractions which naturally come your child's way to train them for a desperately needed attribute for life.

I'm not sure exactly how accurate my assessment is, but I point out that we seem to live in a time of perpetual quitters.  We quit relationships.  We quit employment.  We quit learning.  We quit applying.  We quit trying.  We quit. We must break this definite trend.

The reversal would be that of endurance. Endurance has the connotation of fighting to the finish; even of the most extreme measures.  Stamina is the picture of Jesus...and expected of those who follow.  The fact that a central part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is patience speaks intensely as to the need that we must never give up; never cave to struggles.

I think one thing that would give us a boost is the simple truth that we don't have to give up, give in, give out, or give over.  Sure we hit the assumed impasses.  Yes, these trenches beat upon us at times.  But even a stronger yes is that the picture of Jesus being beaten to his death only to roar back to save those very beaters is a clue as to the power-life in front of us.

Rough days?  Rough ways?  Difficulty?  Stress?  No one says you are misreading.  What I want to say to you is, So?  Use these days to grow up, to grow into Jesus, and to grow out becoming very capable and ready to fight for a people called society who very much need to meet a winner; one who has been beaten but kept coming back to life!

A power move for parents might be to back off of the pampering and move into the training during and in the center of the hot spots of discouragement and difficulty.  If we don't, we are going to continually turn out generations who live on the run.

BREAK FREE FROM BEING STUCK

Be on guard.  A villain lurks with intent to shut every one of us down.  This force presses, insinuates, argues, and discourages.  The goal: get common people to voluntarily fail to reach their potential.

Be on guard.  This culprit strikes fear in the heart of every Daddy, Momma, and Child. It controls schools systems as well as government officials.  Dreams and plans often have to pass his tests when he doesn't even show up for the meetings.

The big problem that mankind has with this monster is that he is invisible.  No one knows exactly where he lives other than he has been seen camping out on the backside of individual hearts.  The name?  Fear.

Fear puts the....F E A R....in people.  He is so shrewd in that he masks his delay tactics by causing the individual to believe hesitancy was truly his or her own idea.  Oblivious to this negative persuasion, we tend to believe things go the way they do because we intentionally applied ourselves.

The result?  People are stuck.  Everywhere we turn people are stuck in life as if they live on streets made of gigantic fly-paper.  Society has dumbed down to the lowest denominators of, Is it without stress? and then, Does it make me happy?

I lived on that street; on the corner of Stuck and Mabee.  I have no idea how many times I continue to take such a going-nowhere route.

What I believe is happening is that day after day very wonderful people awaken to repeat the last 8900 yesterdays with no anticipation of a God-intervention or even an upsetting re-route.  There is a difference between Abraham and us.  He admitted that he didn't know where he was going.  We have convinced ourselves that we do.

The problem, then, that we necessarily develop is that we must keep our territory small enough that we can take effective charge.  Thus, restrictive efforts are a must if we are going to run our show.

We are to have a faith.  Too look ridiculous?  Yes, to look absurd to the religious leader whose obsession is to control every work, every dollar, every dream.  Yes. ludicrous to those who are stuck in want of explanation, viability, and detail when God hasn't provided it yet.

We are often blind to our devotion to keep living in stuck mode.  I want to break this invisible bond in me.  I continue to pray, God, help me to reach the whole world as well as God, show me things no one among us has ever asked to see before.  

God has plans for us.  We cannot afford...the world cannot afford...for us to be stuck on personal safety when we should, by faith, be all about exploration of possibilities. Don't bury your head in the sands of fear.  Bury it in the stars of brave imagination!

The problem is that there is a world in desperate need to be rescued from depression and meaninglessness..  The solution is that we are a part of the solution because we have a new Spirit about us that dares to go where the once hesitant us would rather hide by reading a book about how desperate the needs of the world really are.

PETITION FOR 2016: WE WILL LIVE LIFE ALIVE

What I like about life is that it is uniquely, wonderfully, absolutely....alive!  Surprised at my non-brilliance?  You already knew life was alive; that's why it's called that?  Well, my concern is that a vast amount of friends (and enemies) don't experience life alive.

My observation is that the masses have been buried before they ever reach the cemetery.  Brooding, anger, suspicion, doomed, negative; this and more reflects the minds and hearts of so many in the church and out.  What is exciting is, yes this can be true, but the mold can be broken!

Jesus died so that we could live!  We are to possess life alive!

Do you know what makes life burst with wow-ism?  Try forgiving everyone; not a few, not the least offensive, but E V E R Y O N E.  Try telling God Thank You for your bad days.  Consider prayer instead of gossip.

Ponder the ninety-nine things going right (like eyes, ears, arms, legs, stoves, cars, computers, medications, clinics, kitchen tables, ironing boards, tires, basketballs, voting booths, parking lots, hair dryers [for some, hair], and eighty-three other things).  My guess is you will fall asleep naming your blessings.

So why give obsessive attention to your three troubles?  These don't deserve center stage.  Problems?  Yes, or maybe.  But one of our strongest misfires in life is that we hand the microphone to these culprits and then step aside allowing them the floor.  In Bob Newhart's words, STOP IT!!  These villains do not deserve our endorsement.

May our new year receive our vow to observe life alive.  We will not be a people blessed by abundance; yet dissatisfied because we want even more.  We, rather, will be a nation of believers who are grateful for the 99 to 1 ratio of blessings over stresses.

That's what WE are going to do!

Anybody want to sign this petition?

CHURCH DEFINED

Church comes in varied molds as well as public perceptions.  Some believe it the lifeblood of a community.  Others think it to be a Sunday morning penalty box; sort of a make-up hour for all of the spiritual neglect in our lives.  Still others see church as a nasty six-letter word.

No one has disrupted the joy and the power of church like those of us in it.  We push Jesus' teaching; yet, seem to ignore them when not found to be handy for us.  How many in the church know that we are to refrain from judging others because we are equally guilty?  Basically, we trample that text.

How often do we justify our lack of faithfulness to Him while living with a critical eye toward another?  And by the way, faithfulness to God is not to be correlated with church attendance.  One can be a regular pew-sitter with little certainty that God is active among us.

Church defined?  There could be as many variables as there are members.  There does seem to be a few strong factors expected to be found among us which, with truthful evaluation, might not be our primary focus.

Jesus is the one who perfectly disrupts religiously rote practices.  When we slip into such a spiritual posture, meaningless boredom is quick to follow.  Criticism of others becomes our strong talk; even though not one of us is better than the worst culprit we can name.  We tend to point to others flaws to justify our own lack of spiritual integrity.  I did it for years until I saw myself.

When, however, we begin to investigate Jesus we may find that he will force our weak concepts into the water and walk on top of them.  As we watch Jesus, convenience and comfort are not the basics.  Risk and daring walk for the kingdom are.

Church defined by the standard of Jesus takes all church attenders into a rarely new and wonderful scheme of activity which is loaded with meaning, purpose, and exhilarating results.  If you would be one who doesn't care for church it could be that you have a mistaken definition.  If you live aggravated by some as to how bad they are, without noting your own lackluster behavior, I know you have a warped sense of the kingdom process.

No one is admitted into the church without first confessing our sheer failure; not our accomplishment.  The most powerful writers in the Bible were those who deemed their own sins which led them to plead for a Redeemer.  And they found him.

Church defined might be a place where one can be holy and wholly grateful that such a group of people would let at blatant failure like self in.  We are all just alike.